IC Requiem Post
Benjamin quietly walked down the stairs out the front of his plantation-style home. He had lured the hunter to the gathering. Even the pile of ash left in the body bag in the closet could recognize the brilliance of the manuever. Unfortunately, none of the idiots in the city had wanted to watch outside for the hunter. Their lives were about to drastically change; they had no idea what sat on the throne of their pathetic little city.
Benjamin stepped over the ashen sludge around his house. The hunter had set fire to it and Mackenzie had just as easily extinguished it with one of her 'miracles'. Ben scoffed at the notion that they were miracles. The 'miracles' the Lance tended to display were only inline with the Christian's Old Testament. Longinus was a piece of shit that deserved to live out a horrid existence and be reminded of it after death. He was no savior to Ben, but if others wanted to place him on an altar, more power to them. Disgust and defeat boiled over him.
Thankfully, he would have a long existence to get in order everything he wished to get in order. Cynric had failed, at least according to Billy. It was fortunate that the Conspiracy hadn't put the full weight of their being behind the prospect, but left multiple options open. Gideon's death only solidified Ben's opinion, hell, his place in the treaty did that. Ben had always looked poorly on Gideon (and vica versa as far as he could tell).
Dirae and his line... the young vampire was beginning to re-evaluate his political desire to associate with them. Dirae had always been a little unstable, more so recently. The Lady Dirae was either very intelligent (which he doubted) or could not read between the lines when he spoke to her, and then there were all of the kissasses that surrounded Dirae.
One of them, Luther, had recently gained his attention. Ben would give Luther time to grieve and then consider his options regarding the other predator. He had to be taught a modicum of respect concerning the newcomer. Their first encounter had taught Ben he obviously lacked respect, especially of the self. Ben normally respected brashness, but not when it was directed at him and he knew the other creature was less the predator ... he was beginning to feel his entire line were not worthy of his time aside from Seiko and Delilah.
Ben stopped on his trek through the woods. The clouds parted and he looked up at the moon. Surely, G_d and Asherah looked down on him. Perhaps it was a trial to live this existence in such close proximity to failures. All Ben could see were failures surrounding him, trying to bring him down with them. Gideon and his family were most prominent, Cynric's attempt at an Imperium, even himself for giving over to the Beast when running from the fire.
Perhaps that was the issue, he held them all to standards higher than they could attain. He had fantastic hopes for what each of them could achieve and they consistently failed to meet those expectations. He wondered how long it would be before he truly learned this lesson. Seiko had taught it to him many years ago and everyday it became more obvious. Kindred were not only flawed, their flaws, for the most part were glaring, if one were to know where to look.
He lit up a cigar. The beast reeled from the flame, but Ben kept his ground, laughing at the terrible instincts. He didn't try to overcome it, no, these insticts were every part of the predator he had become and he accepted them like he did any other part of his being. Like any other part of his being though, he would be their master.There were few things that were going his way of late.
Even his fellow Conspirators bickered openly now. He had never seen such before and hoped to never see it again. Mac stood as a constant. Thank G_d for that. The two of them had been friends for a long time. The Crone also had become a refuge for him. Kincaid, Seiko, Madame Latour, had all made good impressions upon him. Perhaps he would simply focus on the positive and let the others fall to the wayside. He could do without a lot of things right now...